


Keep Them Safe

by HerbertBest



Category: Game Grumps
Genre: Family, Family Feels, Food, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Introspection, Kid Fic, Multi, Non-Traditional Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Slice of Life, Thanksgiving, Underage Drug Use
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-02
Updated: 2017-04-02
Packaged: 2018-10-14 00:00:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,253
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10524669
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HerbertBest/pseuds/HerbertBest
Summary: It's Thanksgiving.  Dan takes time to reflect upon his family's progress, especially that of his youngest and eldest daughters.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Part of the Pack verse; click the collection link for more stories!

“C’mere, baby girl.” 

Arin automatically stepped right up to Dan and pecked his cheek, scaring a laugh out of his husband as he plucked Ella up from the floor. He cradled the baby against his skinny chest and said, “thank you. I was talking to our daughter.”

“Hey, I’m baby girl number one,” Arin replied, tucking a dish of mashed potatoes onto the table. “SHE is baby girl number two. Got that, kiddo?” He, Suzy and Holly had been fighting each other for cooking room all day, and finally gotten his signature dishes on and off the stove. They had had a three-way argument about stuffing that Dan had stayed out of, having been raised on Stove Top; when they’d tried to drag Ross in he’d claimed they don’t have stuffing in Australia. 

Ella’s response, delivered from Dan’s arms, was nonsense baby talk that almost sounded like an argument. She was getting closer to her first birthday and was starting to develop a personality, one that suggested she had a wicked sense of humor going on behind those pretty eyes and that mop of curls. He buried his face in her curly hair and planted several kisses against the top of her head, earning him a flailing palm to the face. 

He winced and laughed at the impact. “Thank you very much.” Ella had been a winter baby, born a month before his own birthday, and she was crawling now, eating solid food, starting to clamber up his leg like her sisters had, and she was surprisingly strong. Dan gently sat her in her high chair and straightened out her bright pink sundress (handmade by her Howie, of course). Dan then went about setting the table, pressing a pile of Haunted Mansion china into Arin’s hands. “Work with me, babe, it’ll go quicker.”

Arin snorted. “Aww, you say the sweetest shit.”

Dan shook his head, laughing as he thought back on the year that had been, remembering the milestones. This would be his last daughter, he knew – and with Ella he was pouring over every moment, cherishing it before it slipped though his fingertips. 

In the kitchen there was happy conversation and the sound of dishes clattering together, and he could hear Ross yelling at a soccer game in the living room with Zip letting out awkward matching shouts, trying to learn the game at his behest that it might make her a little more popular. Knowing Zip she’d probably started sketching him, having been a sleepy pile of existential ennui since the Macy’s Parade that morning.

Dan was pretty sure that Holly had won the stuffing argument this year. She was whistling in the kitchen while Suzy arranged piles of yams and carrots cooked in brown sugar into dishes, and Holly only whistled when she was in a good mood. He caught sight of Jemma, focused as she helped pour cranberry sauce into dishes and pull chilled trays of olives from the fridge. She and Suzy had been doing a lot better together lately, and Jemma herself had improved now that they knew how to help her, that they’d found the right teachers and methods that worked for her – instead of trying to push her into a mold of so-called normal perfection. It had been a hard year, hard for all of them, and that they’d come out of it intact was something to celebrate.

He and Arin finished laying out the dishes before heading into the kitchen and helping to bring the food out. There was stuffing, of course (a fruity whole wheat blend – definitely Holly’s choice), carrots, peas and onions (dan held them out and away from his body as he carried them into the dining room, repulsed), yams, rolls, and finally two birds. 

He had to admit Holly had done her best with the tofurkey breast; it actually looked edible. He didn’t say that but did peck Holly’s forehead in congratulations before he helped her carry it out. Then there were the finger foods, the gravy, the cranberry sauce. The table was groaning by the time Suzy lit the candelabra at the center of tit, then started calling everyone in to dinner. 

Cammy had been in the backyard, and was sulky as she toted in her telescope. “It’s too cloudy to see anything,” she complained, sitting down between Suzy and Arin. 

“Maybe it’ll get nicer before the weekend’s over.” She’d been waiting with bated breath for a meteor shower that was supposed to pass over the house all month. 

She made a grumbling noise as she picked up her fork. Suzy comforted her, patting her back then burst into laughter as Ross entered the room wearing neon-colored, turkey-shaped sunglasses. 

“Where did you even get those?!”

“It’s all a big mystery,” Ross said noncommittally, and pulled out Zip’s seat. She held up her sketchbook, which contained a fairly realistic sketch of him watching the match.

“Does this soar?”

“It…does something,” Arin said, giving his offspring a hug. Jemma entered with butter and salt and pepper in tiny shakers, which she presented to Dan with great ceremony.

“Thank you, sweetheart.” He kissed her and then helped her into her chair. Suzy was carving the turkey already while Arin tried to grind through the tofurky. Holly set out squash and strained turkey for Ella, who stared at these new confections with bewildered eyes.

“Maybe she can have some mashed potatoes?” Dan suggested.

“I don’t see the harm in that,” Holly said, and dished up a little bit for their daughter to dab her fingers into.

“Yo!” Rhea said, busting through the back door with a plastic bag and her motorcycle helmet still on. “I’ve got the whipped cream.”

“Thank you,” Holly said, grabbing it and spiriting it off to the kitchen. 

“Great timing, little bird,” Dan remarked. As his eldest removed her motorcycle helmet he winced as a potlike odor filled the air around her body. He wanted to speak up but knew he had no right; better to keep his mouth shut than sound like a hypocritical douche. Rhea refused to meet his eyes as she slipped into position beside him, her hands folded. Zip shot her a foul look as Cammy sniffed the air. Jemma, lost in her own world, sat her baby doll up beside her on her chair and curiously nibbled some olives.

“Why does Rhea smell like a hippie gift shop?” Cammy finally asked.

Arin frowned, and Dan could smell a shouty lecture coming from him in the future. Suzy looked confused – perhaps because she was upwind – and Ross snickered, earning him an elbow from a returning Holly. 

Rhea's answer took none of this into account. “Because I bought the stuff from some hippies. They were groovy,” Rhea added, making Dan cringe as she picked up her fork and avoided eye contact.

They joined hands, once everything was laid out and plates filled. As was customary, in their non-traditional, areligeous household, they wished, hoped, or thanked whoever or whatever they wanted silently. One by one, they offered up their hopes, and then squeezed the hand of the next person, until every wish had been offered up.

Dan’s own hopes were simple; he’d gotten a lot of what he wanted. He looked at his eldest daughter’s spacey gaze, and the innocent curiosity in Ella’s eyes. His wish was the simplest one he could offer up, and the words likely written on the heart of every parent in existence.

 _Keep them safe_ , he thought, and squeezed Jemma’s hand.


End file.
